This invention relates to a bar-type display device and in particular to a bar-type display device utilizing sub-minature incandescent lamps in an unique arrangement.
Existing display systems of the vertical scale type employ moving tapes and/or pointers and suffer from poor reliability and involve high maintenance attendent with mechanical drives. Thus the useful life of such systems is somewhat diminished.
Also existing known display utilizes rear mounted incandescent lights and fiber optic light pipes to transmit the filament light to a viewing surface. Such light pipes cannot utilize the total lamp light output even though collector lenses may be used and further the light losses in fiber themselves further reduces the display intensity. Furthermore, in the prior art since most high intensity lamps are utilized their physical size requires the display to be larger than the lamps which may cause optical uneveness to the viewer when viewing the display from positions other than directly in front of the display.
It is thus an object of this invention to provide a bar-type display which serves as a solid-state indicator without any moving parts so that the useful life and readability are substantially improved.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bar-type display in which all of the light output is utilized in a reflector design utilizing small lamps arranged in line eliminating all fiber optics so that intensity and display uneveness remain unaltered in any viewing angle.
Still another and more specific object of the invention is to utilize a metallic block preferably of extruded aluminum with a elongated curved internal recess and outside walls forming cooling fins, with the internal recess being divided by light barriers to form a bar-type modular incandescent display.